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• Failed to qualify for the World Athletics Relays

He is the Australian who emerged from the sky to set the quickest 100m sprint time under all conditions in Australian history, yet his groundbreaking run was notconsidered satisfactory for national selection.

Although the emergence of Gout Gout has taken center stage in the news, and his close friend and competitor Lachlan Kennedy remains a constant challenge, it was the less-known athlete Eddie Osei-Nketia who recently outshone both of them.

Located in the United States and competing at a college track event, Osei-Nketia amazed his American competitors and made his name known in Australia with a remarkable time of 9.84 seconds.

It was the quickest ever documented by an Australian and placed the 24-year-old strongly in contention for the LA position.Olympics in 2028.

It surpassed Patrick Johnson’s renowned 9.88-second performance in 2003, along with any achievements of past legends likeMatt Shirvingtonand up-and-coming talents Gout and Kennedy have ever recorded.

Nevertheless, Joshua Azzopardi, Rohan Browning, Jai Gordon, Christopher Ius, Kennedy, and Calab Law were selected for the 4x100m squad at the World Athletics Relays.

The exclusion of Gout was anticipated, as his coaching team chose to oversee his growth, minimize the chance of injury, and concentrate on his academic responsibilities as a 17-year-old.

However, Osei-Nketia’s failure to qualify has surprised many in Australia, considering his impressive performance that broke all previous records.

And the fact that he received an illegal wind speed of 2.8 meters per second during that run was not the main reason he was excluded.

Osei-Nketia was born in Auckland and has played for New Zealand throughout his junior years and the majority of his senior career.

Following the young athlete’s contentious exclusion from New Zealand’s Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams in 2021 and 2022, he decided to switch sides.

Although his father Gus was a former New Zealand national 100m record holder, the family relocated to Canberra when Eddie was only nine years old, allowing him to compete for Australia.

His younger sibling, Augustine Nketia Junior, also competes for Australia and is an emerging sprinter in his own merit.

Nevertheless, Eddie has spent minimal time within the Australian system and went to the United States to try to begin an NFL career.

Therefore, Australian selectors chose to recognize athletes who have been progressing through the domestic system, aiming to maintain consistency ahead of Olympic competitions where medals are a realistic goal.

That doesn’t imply Eddie is entirely out of the picture. Australian Athletics’ high performance director Andrew Faichney is collaborating with the US college system to develop a strategy that will enable the sprinter to work with the Australian team in the future.

“Although the Commonwealth Games are a very significant competition for us, it is not as well recognized by U.S. colleges,” Faichney told Reuters.

So we will continue to collaborate with Eddie and his trainer, as well as the university, regarding his schedule.

We are definitely hoping that he will be a strong member of the Australian team for the 2027 world championships and the 2028 Olympics.

And the American higher education system is fully aware of just how brilliantly Eddie’s talent could shine at those occasions.

“I believe he could be the greatest of all time, at least from Australia,” said Nketia’s NCAA coach, Brenton Emmanuel.

I can’t claim he’ll be the greatest of all time [in history], as Usain Bolt was clearly a unique case, but I’m certain Eddie has a lengthy career ahead in track and field.

We’ve adjusted his diet and physical condition, and I believe it’s starting to show. He’s still working on his block start. You wouldn’t expect a young man who is so strong to still be somewhat inexperienced in the weight room, as well as in the blocks, and he needs to keep improving.

That [9.84-second run] was merely a glimpse of what he is capable of, in my view.

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